Page 90 of Caged Bliss

“Right. And then you stabbed me in the back. You really think I can let you walk away?”

“I think you need to be smart here. Spare me and you’ll save Serena here. That’ll really make your new girl happy, right? I’ll tell Simon everything about my Serbian friends, and then I’ll ride off into the sunset. Ideally, that sunset will be in Mexico, far away from any cartels that might want to do your family a favor by finishing me off. It’s a good plan, Angelo. We all win that way.”

My hand tenses on the trigger of my rifle. “We don’t all win,” I say, breathing nice and slow to keep myself calm. If my hands shake right now, if I’m not fast enough?—

“Come on, Angelo, it’s finished. You got the others, right? You killed Paulie in his own fucking house, for fuck’s sake. You survived at least two different ambushes too. Nobody can say you’re not a scary motherfucker, so let it go. Don’t make this hard.”

Serena: please, please, please, please.

Five years flash through my head. Five long, hard years behind bars, five years where I wasted away. I could take the deal, maybe save Serena, maybe get Tommy alive, and it would be a win-win. We’d both walk away from this.

But I can’t do it. I can’t fucking do it. If Tommy lives, I’ll never be satisfied, and I’m fucking kidding myself if I think Tommy’s going to let Serena walk away from here still breathing. She’s his only shield.

I bring the rifle up. He grunts in surprise as I squeeze off one shot. The stock bucks against my shoulder, and Tommy’s skull snaps back as the bullet blows his brains out. Then his finger twitches, and his gun goes off, and Serena’s screaming.

I leap into the truck. Seamus is right behind me, and I don’t have any idea where the fuck he came from, but I don’t care. I go for Serena and grab her, pulling her toward me, looking for wounds. “You’re okay,” I say, over and over. “You’re okay, you’re okay.” She’s covered in blood, but it’s only coming from her cheek, an ugly furrow where the bullet ripped a long line.

Tommy missed. By inches, a millimeter really, but he missed.

“Hell of a shot,” Seamus says, his fingers on Tommy’s pulse. “One in a million.”

“You’re alright,” I say, pulling Serena out onto the street. Davide’s men form a perimeter and they’re keeping the place locked down. No bystanders, no attackers, no onlookers.

“You killed him.” She’s still crying, but she doesn’t look upset. I steer her over to my truck and get her into the passenger side where I can use a towel to clean off the worst of her blood. She holds it up against her face, still staring at me. “He told me he was going to murder me no matter what happened. He said he was going to enjoy it, too.”

“Tommy’s always been a sick fuck. I have a feeling he showed that side of himself to the girls he trafficked instead of you.”

She releases a horrified sob and curls into herself. “I thought he cared,” she whispers. “But it was always just the drugs. Fuck, it was just the drugs.”

“I’m going to take you back to my place now,” I tell her and gesture at Davide. He nods and some of the guys make room in the street so I can get moving. “We’ll clean you up and stitch that face.”

“And then what? Is Claudia there? I don’t think I can look at her right now. I’ve been so fucking terrible to her.”

“Yeah, you have, but now’s your chance to make it right. Don’t fuck it up.”

She stares and gives me a slow, blank nod. “I’ll try.”

I get behind the wheel and start driving.

Chapter 46

Claudia

I’m sitting with Stefania in her living room. We drink wine and pretend like everything’s normal, even though Angelo’s out doing something dangerous with Stefania’s husband and Elena’s brother-in-law. There’s an undercurrent of anxiety rippling through the room, and I have to keep reminding myself that they’re feeling it too.

I hate being stuck here. I know I’d be useless if I were with the guys right now, and I’d only make things so much worse, but it still drives me crazy. I want to do something, except I can only wait and wonder if the worst-case scenario is going to play out.

What if Angelo doesn’t come back? What if Tommy kills Serena in the escape? It’s like my future’s in the balance along with my sanity, and I’m not sure I could survive either scenario. I’ve been strong for so long now that I feel brittle and weak right when it matters the most.

“How do you stand it?” I ask Stefania later that night. It’s nearly one in the morning, and we still haven’t heard anything. I’m exhausted but still too wired to go back home and sleep. “I mean, you’ve been doing this for years, right?”

“It never gets easy,” she admits, looking pale and haggard. Elena went home a few hours back. “I think it helps that I’m in the business side of things, but I don’t know. Davide disappears, sometimes for days at a time, and he’ll come back with these injuries—” She takes a slow, deep breath, and blows it out. “Can I admit something to you?”

“Please do. I’m on the verge of spilling my guts too.”

She laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “Nights like these are a big reason why I don’t want to have kids. Davide’s job is so fucking dangerous, and it’s bad enough that I put myself through this hell. I can’t do that to children too. If we ever lost him, I’d be a total wreck, I’d be completely broken, and it’d be so unfair to the little ones. I just… I just can’t handle it.”

“I completely understand,” I tell her. I try to imagine myself with two babies in my arms while crying over the death of Angelo, but I force myself to stop. It’s way too morbid. “This isn’t an easy life, is it? I mean, you have all this comfort, but?—”

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